1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical selector switch and a signal-processing apparatus including the optical selector switch, which is capable of performing a signal transmission between a transmitting side and a receiving side according to a point-to-multipoint system, a multipoint-to-point system or a multipoint-to-multipoint system. It particularly relates to an optical selector and the like which have a function of reflecting a part of light that is incident on a center portion of an optical waveguide and refracting a part of the light to generate a optical path or optical paths on a desired direction or desired directions, so that the signal transmission can be realized without any attenuation of the light.
2. Description of Related Art
A multistage optical selector switch according to a multipoint-to-multipoint system has studied and developed accompanying an expansion of long-distance multiplex communication technology using an optical cable.
Specifically, there have existed an optical switch of optical-fiber-driving type that changes optical paths by directly driving a fiber with a magnetized cover by means of electromagnet, an optical switch of micro mirror type that changes optical paths by changing a reflection angle of light using an MEM mirror, an optical switch of wave guide type that switches the light on or off by, after separating light into its two spectral components that are different in a phase, performing a phase inversion on one spectral component of the light and interfering with it to original light, and a multistage optical selector switch using an optical sheet bus. The multistage optical switch according to a multipoint-to-multipoint system has been configured based on these technologies to switch a communication signal.
Such an optical switch, however, is expensive and has a large cabinet so that it is unsuitable for built-in to any general consumer appliances.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. H10-123350 has proposed a system such that functions of products have been assembled into modules and the functions may be easily added and changed on the optical sheet bus.
In such a past optical sheet bus, scattering members are dispersed and disposed over an optical transmission layer and incident signal light spreads and is transmitted, which enables a signal transmission to be realized between plural boards that are connected to the optical sheet bus.